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Message-Id: <256b29c3274bb89a10157c4a8d1a8bce7e74849e.1585941485.git.zanussi@kernel.org>
Date:   Fri,  3 Apr 2020 14:31:20 -0500
From:   Tom Zanussi <zanussi@...nel.org>
To:     rostedt@...dmis.org
Cc:     mhiramat@...nel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH 2/3] tracing: Add histogram-design document

Add a new Documentation/trace/histogram-design.rst file describing the
ftrace histogram low-level design, meant to help developers trying to
understand the internals when extending or making use of the hist
triggers for higher-level tools.

This documentation refers to the hist_debug files implemented by
'tracing: Add hist_debug trace event files for histogram debugging' so
users wishing to try out the test examples here should make sure
CONFIG_HIST_TRIGGERS_DEBUG is enabled.

Signed-off-by: Tom Zanussi <zanussi@...nel.org>
---
 Documentation/trace/histogram-design.rst | 2115 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 2115 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/trace/histogram-design.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/trace/histogram-design.rst b/Documentation/trace/histogram-design.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c246753f0ffc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/trace/histogram-design.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2115 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+======================
+Histogram Design Notes
+======================
+
+:Author: Tom Zanussi <zanussi@...nel.org>
+
+This document attempts to provide a description of how the ftrace
+histograms work and how the individual pieces map to the data
+structures used to implement them in trace_events_hist.c and
+tracing_map.c.
+
+Note: All the ftrace histogram command examples assume the working
+      directory is the ftrace /tracing directory. For example::
+
+  # cd /sys/kernel/debug/tracing
+
+Also, the histogram output displayed for those commands will be
+generally be truncated - only enough to make the point is displayed.
+
+'hist_debug' trace event files
+==============================
+
+If the kernel is compiled with CONFIG_HIST_TRIGGERS_DEBUG set, an
+event file named 'hist_debug' will appear in each event's
+subdirectory.  This file can be read at any time and will display some
+of the hist trigger internals described in this document. Specific
+examples and output will be described in test cases below.
+
+Basic histograms
+================
+
+First, basic histograms.  Below is pretty much the simplest thing you
+can do with histograms - create one with a single key on a single
+event and cat the output::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_waking/hist
+
+  { pid:      18249 } hitcount:          1
+  { pid:      13399 } hitcount:          1
+  { pid:      17973 } hitcount:          1
+  { pid:      12572 } hitcount:          1
+  ...
+  { pid:         10 } hitcount:        921
+  { pid:      18255 } hitcount:       1444
+  { pid:      25526 } hitcount:       2055
+  { pid:       5257 } hitcount:       2055
+  { pid:      27367 } hitcount:       2055
+  { pid:       1728 } hitcount:       2161
+
+  Totals:
+    Hits: 21305
+    Entries: 183
+    Dropped: 0
+
+What this does is create a histogram on the sched_waking event using
+pid as a key and with a single value, hitcount, which even if not
+explicitly specified, exists for every histogram regardless.
+
+The hitcount value is a per-bucket value that's automatically
+incremented on every hit for the given key, which in this case is the
+pid.
+
+So in this histogram, there's a separate bucket for each pid, and each
+bucket contains a value for that bucket, counting the number of times
+sched_waking was called for that pid.
+
+Each histogram is represented by a hist_data struct.
+
+To keep track of each key and value field in the histogram, hist_data
+keeps an array of these fields named fields[].  The fields[] array is
+an array containing struct hist_field representations of each
+histogram val and key in the histogram (variables are also included
+here, but are discussed later). So for the above histogram we have one
+key and one value; in this case the one value is the hitcount value,
+which all histograms have, regardless of whether they define that
+value or not, which the above histogram does not.
+
+Each struct hist_field contains a pointer to the ftrace_event_field
+from the event's trace_event_file along with various bits related to
+that such as the size, offset, type, and a hist_field_fn_t function,
+which is used to grab the field's data from the ftrace event buffer
+(in most cases - some hist_fields such as hitcount don't directly map
+to an event field in the trace buffer - in these cases the function
+implementation gets its value from somewhere else).  The flags field
+indicates which type of field it is - key, value, variable, variable
+reference, etc., with value being the default.
+
+The other important hist_data data structure in addition to the
+fields[] array is the tracing_map instance created for the histogram,
+which is held in the .map member.  The tracing_map implements the
+lock-free hash table used to implement histograms (see
+kernel/trace/tracing_map.h for much more discussion about the
+low-level data structures implementing the tracing_map).  For the
+purposes of this discussion, the tracing_map contains a number of
+buckets, each bucket corresponding to a particular tracing_map_elt
+object hashed by a given histogram key.
+
+Below is a diagram the first part of which describes the hist_data and
+associated key and value fields for the histogram described above.  As
+you can see, there are two fields in the fields array, one val field
+for the hitcount and one key field for the pid key.
+
+Below that is a diagram of a run-time snapshot of what the tracing_map
+might look like for a given run.  It attempts to show the
+relationships between the hist_data fields and the tracing_map
+elements for a couple hypothetical keys and values.
+
+  +------------------+
+  | hist_data        |
+  +------------------+     +----------------+
+    | .fields[]      |---->| val = hitcount |----------------------------+
+    +----------------+     +----------------+                            |
+    | .map           |       | .size        |                            |
+    +----------------+       +--------------+                            |
+                             | .offset      |                            |
+                             +--------------+                            |
+                             | .fn()        |                            |
+                             +--------------+                            |
+                                   .                                     |
+                                   .                                     |
+                                   .                                     |
+                           +----------------+ <--- n_vals                |
+                           | key = pid      |----------------------------|--+
+                           +----------------+                            |  |
+                             | .size        |                            |  |
+                             +--------------+                            |  |
+                             | .offset      |                            |  |
+                             +--------------+                            |  |
+                             | .fn()        |                            |  |
+                           +----------------+ <--- n_fields              |  |
+                           | unused         |                            |  |
+                           +----------------+                            |  |
+                             |              |                            |  |
+                             +--------------+                            |  |
+                             |              |                            |  |
+                             +--------------+                            |  |
+                             |              |                            |  |
+                             +--------------+                            |  |
+                                            n_keys = n_fields - n_vals   |  |
+		                                                         |  |
+The hist_data n_vals and n_fields delineate the extent of the fields[]   |  |
+array and separate keys from values for the rest of the code.            |  |
+		                                                         |  |
+Below is a run-time representation of the tracing_map part of the        |  |
+histogram, with pointers from various parts of the fields[] array        |  |
+to corresponding parts of the tracing_map.                               |  |
+		                                                         |  |
+The tracing_map consists of an array of tracing_map_entrys and a set     |  |
+of preallocated tracing_map_elts (abbreviated below as map_entry and     |  |
+map_elt).  The total number of map_entrys in the hist_data.map array =   |  |
+map->max_elts (actually map->map_size but only max_elts of those are     |  |
+used.  This is a property required by the map_insert() algorithm).       |  |
+		                                                         |  |
+If a map_entry is unused, meaning no key has yet hashed into it, its     |  |
+.key value is 0 and its .val pointer is NULL.  Once a map_entry has      |  |
+been claimed, the .key value contains the key's hash value and the       |  |
+.val member points to a map_elt containing the full key and an entry     |  |
+for each key or value in the map_elt.fields[] array.  There is an        |  |
+entry in the map_elt.fields[] array corresponding to each hist_field     |  |
+in the histogram, and this is where the continually aggregated sums      |  |
+corresponding to each histogram value are kept.                          |  |
+		                                                         |  |
+The diagram attempts to show the relationship between the                |  |
+hist_data.fields[] and the map_elt.fields[] with the links drawn         |  |
+between diagrams::                                                       |  |
+		                                                         |  |
+  +-----------+		                                                 |  |
+  | hist_data |		                                                 |  |
+  +-----------+		                                                 |  |
+    | .fields |		                                                 |  |
+    +---------+     +-----------+		                         |  |
+    | .map    |---->| map_entry |		                         |  |
+    +---------+     +-----------+		                         |  |
+                      | .key    |---> 0		                         |  |
+                      +---------+		                         |  |
+                      | .val    |---> NULL		                 |  |
+                    +-----------+                                        |  |
+                    | map_entry |                                        |  |
+                    +-----------+                                        |  |
+                      | .key    |---> pid = 999                          |  |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                       |  |
+                      | .val    |--->| map_elt   |                       |  |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                       |  |
+                           .           | .key    |---> full key *        |  |
+                           .           +---------+    +---------------+  |  |
+			   .           | .fields |--->| .sum (val)    |<-+  |
+                    +-----------+      +---------+    | 2345          |  |  |
+                    | map_entry |                     +---------------+  |  |
+                    +-----------+                     | .offset (key) |<----+
+                      | .key    |---> 0               | 0             |  |  |
+                      +---------+                     +---------------+  |  |
+                      | .val    |---> NULL                    .          |  |
+                    +-----------+                             .          |  |
+                    | map_entry |                             .          |  |
+                    +-----------+                     +---------------+  |  |
+                      | .key    |                     | .sum (val) or |  |  |
+                      +---------+    +---------+      | .offset (key) |  |  |
+                      | .val    |--->| map_elt |      +---------------+  |  |
+                    +-----------+    +---------+      | .sum (val) or |  |  |
+                    | map_entry |                     | .offset (key) |  |  |
+                    +-----------+                     +---------------+  |  |
+                      | .key    |---> pid = 4444                         |  |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                       |  |
+                      | .val    |    | map_elt   |                       |  |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                       |  |
+                                       | .key    |---> full key *        |  |
+                                       +---------+    +---------------+  |  |
+			               | .fields |--->| .sum (val)    |<-+  |
+                                       +---------+    | 65523         |     |
+                                                      +---------------+     |
+                                                      | .offset (key) |<----+
+                                                      | 0             |
+                                                      +---------------+
+                                                              .
+                                                              .
+                                                              .
+                                                      +---------------+
+                                                      | .sum (val) or |
+                                                      | .offset (key) |
+                                                      +---------------+
+                                                      | .sum (val) or |
+                                                      | .offset (key) |
+                                                      +---------------+
+
+Abbreviations used in the diagrams::
+
+  hist_data = struct hist_trigger_data
+  hist_data.fields = struct hist_field
+  fn = hist_field_fn_t
+  map_entry = struct tracing_map_entry
+  map_elt = struct tracing_map_elt
+  map_elt.fields = struct tracing_map_field
+
+Whenever a new event occurs and it has a hist trigger associated with
+it, event_hist_trigger() is called.  event_hist_trigger() first deals
+with the key: for each subkey in the key (in the above example, there
+is just one subkey corresponding to pid), the hist_field that
+represents that subkey is retrieved from hist_data.fields[] and the
+hist_field_fn_t fn() associated with that field, along with the
+field's size and offset, is used to grab that subkey's data from the
+current trace record.
+
+Once the complete key has been retrieved, it's used to look that key
+up in the tracing_map.  If there's no tracing_map_elt associated with
+that key, an empty one is claimed and inserted in the map for the new
+key.  In either case, the tracing_map_elt associated with that key is
+returned.
+
+Once a tracing_map_elt available, hist_trigger_elt_update() is called.
+As the name implies, this updates the element, which basically means
+updating the element's fields.  There's a tracing_map_field associated
+with each key and value in the histogram, and each of these correspond
+to the key and value hist_fields created when the histogram was
+created.  hist_trigger_elt_update() goes through each value hist_field
+and, as for the keys, uses the hist_field's fn() and size and offset
+to grab the field's value from the current trace record.  Once it has
+that value, it simply adds that value to that field's
+continually-updated tracing_map_field.sum member.  Some hist_field
+fn()s, such as for the hitcount, don't actually grab anything from the
+trace record (the hitcount fn() just increments the counter sum by 1),
+but the idea is the same.
+
+Once all the values have been updated, hist_trigger_elt_update() is
+done and returns.  Note that there are also tracing_map_fields for
+each subkey in the key, but hist_trigger_elt_update() doesn't look at
+them or update anything - those exist only for sorting, which can
+happen later.
+
+Basic histogram test
+--------------------
+
+This is a good example to try.  It produces 3 value fields and 2 key
+fields in the output::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=common_pid,call_site.sym:values=bytes_req,bytes_alloc,hitcount' >> events/kmem/kmalloc/trigger
+
+To see the debug data, cat the kmem/kmalloc's 'hist_debug' file. It
+will show the trigger info of the histogram it corresponds to, along
+with the address of the hist_data associated with the histogram, which
+will become useful in later examples.  It then displays the number of
+total hist_fields associated with the histogram along with a count of
+how many of those correspond to keys and how many correspond to values.
+
+It then goes on to display details for each field, including the
+field's flags and the position of each field in the hist_data's
+fields[] array, which is useful information for verifying that things
+internally appear correct or not, and which again will become even
+more useful in further examples::
+
+  # cat events/kmem/kmalloc/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=common_pid,call_site.sym:vals=hitcount,bytes_req,bytes_alloc:sort=hitcount:size=2048 [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 000000005e48c9a5
+
+  n_vals: 3
+  n_keys: 2
+  n_fields: 5
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: normal u64 value
+      ftrace_event_field name: bytes_req
+      type: size_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: normal u64 value
+      ftrace_event_field name: bytes_alloc
+      type: size_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[3]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: common_pid
+      type: int
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->fields[4]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: call_site
+      type: unsigned long
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+The commands below can be used to clean things up for the next test::
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=common_pid,call_site.sym:values=bytes_req,bytes_alloc,hitcount' >> events/kmem/kmalloc/trigger
+
+Variables
+=========
+
+Variables allow data from one hist trigger to be saved by one hist
+trigger and retrieved by another hist trigger.  For example, a trigger
+on the sched_waking event can capture a timestamp for a particular
+pid, and later a sched_switch event that switches to that pid event
+can grab the timestamp and use it to calculate a time delta between
+the two events::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >>
+          events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0' >>
+          events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+In terms of the histogram data structures, variables are implemented
+as another type of hist_field and for a given hist trigger are added
+to the hist_data.fields[] array just after all the val fields.  To
+distinguish them from the existing key and val fields, they're given a
+new flag type, HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR (abbreviated FL_VAR) and they also
+make use of a new .var.idx field member in struct hist_field, which
+maps them to an index in a new map_elt.vars[] array added to the
+map_elt specifically designed to store and retrieve variable values.
+The diagram below shows those new elements and adds a new variable
+entry, ts0, corresponding to the ts0 variable in the sched_waking
+trigger above.
+
+sched_waking histogram
+----------------------
+
+  +------------------+
+  | hist_data        |<-------------------------------------------------------+
+  +------------------+   +-------------------+                                |
+    | .fields[]      |-->| val = hitcount    |                                |
+    +----------------+   +-------------------+                                |
+    | .map           |     | .size           |                                |
+    +----------------+     +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .offset         |                                |
+                           +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .fn()           |                                |
+                           +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .flags          |                                |
+                           +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .var.idx        |                                |
+                         +-------------------+                                |
+                         | var = ts0         |                                |
+                         +-------------------+                                |
+                           | .size           |                                |
+                           +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .offset         |                                |
+                           +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .fn()           |                                |
+                           +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .flags & FL_VAR |                                |
+                           +-----------------+                                |
+                           | .var.idx        |----------------------------+-+ |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+			            .                                     | | |
+				    .                                     | | |
+                                    .                                     | | |
+                         +-------------------+ <--- n_vals                | | |
+                         | key = pid         |                            | | |
+                         +-------------------+                            | | |
+                           | .size           |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           | .offset         |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           | .fn()           |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           | .flags & FL_KEY |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           | .var.idx        |                            | | |
+                         +-------------------+ <--- n_fields              | | |
+                         | unused            |                            | | |
+                         +-------------------+                            | | |
+                           |                 |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           |                 |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           |                 |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           |                 |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                           |                 |                            | | |
+                           +-----------------+                            | | |
+                                             n_keys = n_fields - n_vals   | | |
+                                                                          | | |
+                                                                          | | |
+This is very similar to the basic case.  In the above diagram, we can     | | |
+see a new .flags member has been added to the struct hist_field           | | |
+struct, and a new entry added to hist_data.fields representing the ts0    | | |
+variable.  For a normal val hist_field, .flags is just 0 (modulo          | | |
+modifier flags), but if the value is defined as a variable, the .flags    | | |
+contains a set FL_VAR bit.                                                | | |
+                                                                          | | |
+As you can see, the ts0 entry's .var.idx member contains the index        | | |
+into the tracing_map_elts' .vars[] array containing variable values.      | | |
+This idx is used whenever the value of the variable is set or read.       | | |
+The map_elt.vars idx assigned to the given variable is assigned and       | | |
+saved in .var.idx by create_tracing_map_fields() after it calls           | | |
+tracing_map_add_var().                                                    | | |
+                                                                          | | |
+Below is a representation of the histogram at run-time, which             | | |
+populates the map, along with correspondence to the above hist_data and   | | |
+hist_field data structures.                                               | | |
+                                                                          | | |
+The diagram attempts to show the relationship between the                 | | |
+hist_data.fields[] and the map_elt.fields[] and map_elt.vars[] with       | | |
+the links drawn between diagrams.  For each of the map_elts, you can      | | |
+see that the .fields[] members point to the .sum or .offset of a key      | | |
+or val and the .vars[] members point to the value of a variable.  The     | | |
+arrows between the two diagrams show the linkages between those           | | |
+tracing_map members and the field definitions in the corresponding        | | |
+hist_data fields[] members.                                               | | |
+                                                                          | | |
+  +-----------+		                                                  | | |
+  | hist_data |		                                                  | | |
+  +-----------+		                                                  | | |
+    | .fields |		                                                  | | |
+    +---------+     +-----------+		                          | | |
+    | .map    |---->| map_entry |		                          | | |
+    +---------+     +-----------+		                          | | |
+                      | .key    |---> 0		                          | | |
+                      +---------+		                          | | |
+                      | .val    |---> NULL		                  | | |
+                    +-----------+                                         | | |
+                    | map_entry |                                         | | |
+                    +-----------+                                         | | |
+                      | .key    |---> pid = 999                           | | |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                        | | |
+                      | .val    |--->| map_elt   |                        | | |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                        | | |
+                           .           | .key    |---> full key *         | | |
+                           .           +---------+    +---------------+   | | |
+			   .           | .fields |--->| .sum (val)    |   | | |
+                           .           +---------+    | 2345          |   | | |
+                           .        +--| .vars   |    +---------------+   | | |
+                           .        |  +---------+    | .offset (key) |   | | |
+                           .        |                 | 0             |   | | |
+                           .        |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                           .        |                         .           | | |
+                           .        |                         .           | | |
+                           .        |                         .           | | |
+                           .        |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                           .        |                 | .sum (val) or |   | | |
+                           .        |                 | .offset (key) |   | | |
+                           .        |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                           .        |                 | .sum (val) or |   | | |
+                           .        |                 | .offset (key) |   | | |
+                           .        |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                           .        |                                     | | |
+                           .        +---------------->+---------------+   | | |
+			   .                          | ts0           |<--+ | |
+                           .                          | 113345679876  |   | | |
+                           .                          +---------------+   | | |
+                           .                          | unused        |   | | |
+                           .                          |               |   | | |
+                           .                          +---------------+   | | |
+                           .                                  .           | | |
+                           .                                  .           | | |
+                           .                                  .           | | |
+                           .                          +---------------+   | | |
+                           .                          | unused        |   | | |
+                           .                          |               |   | | |
+                           .                          +---------------+   | | |
+                           .                          | unused        |   | | |
+                           .                          |               |   | | |
+                           .                          +---------------+   | | |
+                           .                                              | | |
+                    +-----------+                                         | | |
+                    | map_entry |                                         | | |
+                    +-----------+                                         | | |
+                      | .key    |---> pid = 4444                          | | |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                        | | |
+                      | .val    |--->| map_elt   |                        | | |
+                      +---------+    +-----------+                        | | |
+                           .           | .key    |---> full key *         | | |
+                           .           +---------+    +---------------+   | | |
+			   .           | .fields |--->| .sum (val)    |   | | |
+                                       +---------+    | 2345          |   | | |
+                                    +--| .vars   |    +---------------+   | | |
+                                    |  +---------+    | .offset (key) |   | | |
+                                    |                 | 0             |   | | |
+                                    |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                                    |                         .           | | |
+                                    |                         .           | | |
+                                    |                         .           | | |
+                                    |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                                    |                 | .sum (val) or |   | | |
+                                    |                 | .offset (key) |   | | |
+                                    |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                                    |                 | .sum (val) or |   | | |
+                                    |                 | .offset (key) |   | | |
+                                    |                 +---------------+   | | |
+                                    |                                     | | |
+                                    |                 +---------------+   | | |
+			            +---------------->| ts0           |<--+ | |
+                                                      | 213499240729  |     | |
+                                                      +---------------+     | |
+                                                      | unused        |     | |
+                                                      |               |     | |
+                                                      +---------------+     | |
+                                                              .             | |
+                                                              .             | |
+                                                              .             | |
+                                                      +---------------+     | |
+                                                      | unused        |     | |
+                                                      |               |     | |
+                                                      +---------------+     | |
+                                                      | unused        |     | |
+                                                      |               |     | |
+                                                      +---------------+     | |
+                                                                            | |
+For each used map entry, there's a map_elt pointing to an array of          | |
+.vars containing the current value of the variables associated with         | |
+that histogram entry.  So in the above, the timestamp associated with       | |
+pid 999 is 113345679876, and the timestamp variable in the same             | |
+.var.idx for pid 4444 is 213499240729.                                      | |
+                                                                            | |
+sched_switch histogram                                                      | |
+----------------------                                                      | |
+                                                                            | |
+The sched_switch histogram paired with the above sched_waking               | |
+histogram is shown below.  The most important aspect of the                 | |
+sched_switch histogram is that it references a variable on the              | |
+sched_waking histogram above.                                               | |
+                                                                            | |
+The histogram diagram is very similar to the others so far displayed,       | |
+but it adds variable references.  You can see the normal hitcount and       | |
+key fields along with a new wakeup_lat variable implemented in the          | |
+same way as the sched_waking ts0 variable, but in addition there's an       | |
+entry with the new FL_VAR_REF (short for HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF) flag.       | |
+                                                                            | |
+Associated with the new var ref field are a couple of new hist_field        | |
+members, var.hist_data and var_ref_idx.  For a variable reference, the      | |
+var.hist_data goes with the var.idx, which together uniquely identify       | |
+a particular variable on a particular histogram.  The var_ref_idx is        | |
+just the index into the var_ref_vals[] array that caches the values of      | |
+each variable whenever a hist trigger is updated.  Those resulting          | |
+values are then finally accessed by other code such as trace action         | |
+code that uses the var_ref_idx values to assign param values.               | |
+                                                                            | |
+The diagram below describes the situation for the sched_switch              | |
+histogram referred to before:                                               | |
+                                                                            | |
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0' >>     | |
+          events/sched/sched_switch/trigger                                 | |
+                                                                            | |
+  +------------------+                                                      | |
+  | hist_data        |                                                      | |
+  +------------------+   +-----------------------+                          | |
+    | .fields[]      |-->| val = hitcount        |                          | |
+    +----------------+   +-----------------------+                          | |
+    | .map           |     | .size               |                          | |
+    +----------------+     +---------------------+                          | |
+ +--| .var_refs[]    |     | .offset             |                          | |
+ |  +----------------+     +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                         | .fn()               |                          | |
+ |   var_ref_vals[]        +---------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+        | .flags              |                          | |
+ |  | $ts0        |<---+   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+    |   | .var.idx            |                          | |
+ |  |             |    |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+    |   | .var.hist_data      |                          | |
+ |  |             |    |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+    |   | .var_ref_idx        |                          | |
+ |  |             |    | +-----------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+    | | var = wakeup_lat      |                          | |
+ |         .           | +-----------------------+                          | |
+ |         .           |   | .size               |                          | |
+ |         .           |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+    |   | .offset             |                          | |
+ |  |             |    |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+    |   | .fn()               |                          | |
+ |  |             |    |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |  +-------------+    |   | .flags & FL_VAR     |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .var.idx            |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .var.hist_data      |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .var_ref_idx        |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |             .                                      | |
+ |                     |             .                                      | |
+ |                     |             .                                      | |
+ |                     | +-----------------------+ <--- n_vals              | |
+ |                     | | key = pid             |                          | |
+ |                     | +-----------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .size               |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .offset             |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .fn()               |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .flags              |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   | .var.idx            |                          | |
+ |                     | +-----------------------+ <--- n_fields            | |
+ |                     | | unused                |                          | |
+ |                     | +-----------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   |                     |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   |                     |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   |                     |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   |                     |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |   |                     |                          | |
+ |                     |   +---------------------+                          | |
+ |                     |                         n_keys = n_fields - n_vals | |
+ |                     |                                                    | |
+ |                     |						    | |
+ |                     | +-----------------------+                          | |
+ +---------------------->| var_ref = $ts0        |                          | |
+                       | +-----------------------+                          | |
+                       |   | .size               |                          | |
+                       |   +---------------------+                          | |
+                       |   | .offset             |                          | |
+                       |   +---------------------+                          | |
+                       |   | .fn()               |                          | |
+                       |   +---------------------+                          | |
+                       |   | .flags & FL_VAR_REF |                          | |
+                       |   +---------------------+                          | |
+                       |   | .var.idx            |--------------------------+ |
+                       |   +---------------------+                            |
+                       |   | .var.hist_data      |----------------------------+
+                       |   +---------------------+
+                       +---| .var_ref_idx        |
+                           +---------------------+
+
+Abbreviations used in the diagrams::
+
+  hist_data = struct hist_trigger_data
+  hist_data.fields = struct hist_field
+  fn = hist_field_fn_t
+  FL_KEY = HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+  FL_VAR = HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+  FL_VAR_REF = HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+
+When a hist trigger makes use of a variable, a new hist_field is
+created with flag HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF.  For a VAR_REF field, the
+var.idx and var.hist_data take the same values as the referenced
+variable, as well as the referenced variable's size, type, and
+is_signed values.  The VAR_REF field's .name is set to the name of the
+variable it references.  If a variable reference was created using the
+explicit system.event.$var_ref notation, the hist_field's system and
+event_name variabls are also set.
+
+So, in order to handle an event for the sched_switch histogram,
+because we have a reference to a variable on another histogram, we
+need to resolve all variable references first.  This is done via the
+resolve_var_refs() calls made from event_hist_trigger().  What this
+does is grabs the var_refs[] array from the hist_data representing the
+sched_switch histogram.  For each one of those, the referenced
+variable's var.hist_data along with the current key is used to look up
+the corresponding tracing_map_elt in that histogram.  Once found, the
+referenced variable's var.idx is used to look up the variable's value
+using tracing_map_read_var(elt, var.idx), which yields the value of
+the variable for that element, ts0 in the case above.  Note that both
+the hist_fields representing both the variable and the variable
+reference have the same var.idx, so this is straightforward.
+
+Variable and variable reference test
+------------------------------------
+
+This example creates a variable on the sched_waking event, ts0, and
+uses it in the sched_switch trigger.  The sched_switch trigger also
+creates its own variable, wakeup_lat, but nothing yet uses it::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+Looking at the sched_waking 'hist_debug' output, in addition to the
+normal key and value hist_fields, in the val fields section we see a
+field with the HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR flag, which indicates that that field
+represents a variable.  Note that in addition to the variable name,
+contained in the var.name field, it includes the var.idx, which is the
+index into the tracing_map_elt.vars[] array of the actual variable
+location.  Note also that the output shows that variables live in the
+same part of the hist_data->fields[] array as normal values::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_waking/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=pid:vals=hitcount:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 000000009536f554
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+Moving on to the sched_switch trigger hist_debug output, in addition
+to the unused wakeup_lat variable, we see a new section displaying
+variable references.  Variable references are displayed in a separate
+section because in addition to to being logically separate from
+variables and values, they actually live in a separate hist_data
+array, var_refs[].
+
+In this example, the sched_switch trigger has a reference to a
+variable on the sched_waking trigger, $ts0.  Looking at the details,
+we can see that the var.hist_data value of the referenced variable
+matches the previously displayed sched_waking trigger, and the var.idx
+value matches the previously displayed var.idx value for that
+variable.  Also displayed is the var_ref_idx value for that variable
+reference, which is where the value for that variable is cached for
+use when the trigger is invoked::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_switch/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=next_pid:vals=hitcount:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 00000000f4ee8006
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  variable reference fields:
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[0]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 000000009536f554
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+The commands below can be used to clean things up for the next test::
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+Actions and Handlers
+====================
+
+Adding onto the previous example, we will now do something with that
+wakeup_lat variable, namely send it and another field as a synthetic
+event.
+
+The onmatch() action below basically says that whenever we have a
+sched_switch event, if we have a matching sched_waking event, in this
+case if we have a pid in the sched_waking histogram that matches the
+the next_pid field on this sched_switch event, we retrieve the
+variables specified in the wakeup_latency() trace action, and use
+them to generate a new wakeup_latency event into the trace stream.
+
+Note that the way the trace handlers such as wakeup_latency() (which
+could equivalently be written trace(wakeup_latency,$wakeup_lat,next_pid)
+are implemented, the parameters specified to the trace handler must be
+variables.  In this case, $wakeup_lat is obviously a variable, but
+next_pid isn't, since it's just naming a field in the sched_switch
+trace event.  Since this is something that almost every trace() and
+save() action does, a special shortcut is implemented to allow field
+names to be used directly in those cases.  How it works is that under
+the covers, a temporary variable is created for the named field, and
+this variable is what is actually passed to the trace handler.  In the
+code and documentation, this type of variable is called a 'field
+variable'.
+
+Fields on other trace event's histograms can be used as well.  In that
+case we have to generate a new histogram and an unfortunately named
+'synthetic_field' (the use of synthetic here has nothing to do with
+synthetic events) and use that special histogram field as a variable.
+
+The diagram below illustrates the new elements described above in the
+context of the sched_switch histogram using the onmatch() handler and
+the trace() action.
+
+First, we define the wakeup_latency synthetic event::
+
+  # echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid' >> synthetic_events
+
+Next, the sched_waking hist trigger as before::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >>
+          events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+Finally, we create a hist trigger on the sched_switch event that
+generates a wakeup_latency() trace event.  In this case we pass
+next_pid into the wakeup_latency synthetic event invocation, which
+means it will be automatically converted into a field variable::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0: \
+          onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid)' >>
+	  /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+The diagram for the sched_switch event is similar to previous examples
+but shows the additional field_vars[] array for hist_data and shows
+the linkages between the field_vars and the variables and references
+created to implement the field variables.  The details are discussed
+below::
+
+    +------------------+
+    | hist_data        |
+    +------------------+   +-----------------------+
+      | .fields[]      |-->| val = hitcount        |
+      +----------------+   +-----------------------+
+      | .map           |     | .size               |
+      +----------------+     +---------------------+
+  +---| .field_vars[]  |     | .offset             |
+  |   +----------------+     +---------------------+
+  |+--| .var_refs[]    |     | .offset             |
+  ||  +----------------+     +---------------------+
+  ||                         | .fn()               |
+  ||   var_ref_vals[]        +---------------------+
+  ||  +-------------+        | .flags              |
+  ||  | $ts0        |<---+   +---------------------+
+  ||  +-------------+    |   | .var.idx            |
+  ||  | $next_pid   |<-+ |   +---------------------+
+  ||  +-------------+  | |   | .var.hist_data      |
+  ||+>| $wakeup_lat |  | |   +---------------------+
+  ||| +-------------+  | |   | .var_ref_idx        |
+  ||| |             |  | | +-----------------------+
+  ||| +-------------+  | | | var = wakeup_lat      |
+  |||        .         | | +-----------------------+
+  |||        .         | |   | .size               |
+  |||        .         | |   +---------------------+
+  ||| +-------------+  | |   | .offset             |
+  ||| |             |  | |   +---------------------+
+  ||| +-------------+  | |   | .fn()               |
+  ||| |             |  | |   +---------------------+
+  ||| +-------------+  | |   | .flags & FL_VAR     |
+  |||                  | |   +---------------------+
+  |||                  | |   | .var.idx            |
+  |||                  | |   +---------------------+
+  |||                  | |   | .var.hist_data      |
+  |||                  | |   +---------------------+
+  |||                  | |   | .var_ref_idx        |
+  |||                  | |   +---------------------+
+  |||                  | |              .
+  |||                  | |              .
+  |||                  | |              .
+  |||                  | |              .
+  ||| +--------------+ | |              .
+  +-->| field_var    | | |              .
+   || +--------------+ | |              .
+   ||   | var        | | |              .
+   ||   +------------+ | |              .
+   ||   | val        | | |              .
+   || +--------------+ | |              .
+   || | field_var    | | |              .
+   || +--------------+ | |              .
+   ||   | var        | | |              .
+   ||   +------------+ | |              .
+   ||   | val        | | |              .
+   ||   +------------+ | |              .
+   ||         .        | |              .
+   ||         .        | |              .
+   ||         .        | | +-----------------------+ <--- n_vals
+   || +--------------+ | | | key = pid             |
+   || | field_var    | | | +-----------------------+
+   || +--------------+ | |   | .size               |
+   ||   | var        |--+|   +---------------------+
+   ||   +------------+ |||   | .offset             |
+   ||   | val        |-+||   +---------------------+
+   ||   +------------+ |||   | .fn()               |
+   ||                  |||   +---------------------+
+   ||                  |||   | .flags              |
+   ||                  |||   +---------------------+
+   ||                  |||   | .var.idx            |
+   ||                  |||   +---------------------+ <--- n_fields
+   ||                  |||
+   ||                  |||                           n_keys = n_fields - n_vals
+   ||                  ||| +-----------------------+
+   ||                  |+->| var = next_pid        |
+   ||                  | | +-----------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .size               |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .offset             |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .flags & FL_VAR     |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .var.idx            |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .var.hist_data      |
+   ||                  | | +-----------------------+
+   ||                  +-->| val for next_pid      |
+   ||                  | | +-----------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .size               |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .offset             |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .fn()               |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   | .flags              |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |   |                     |
+   ||                  | |   +---------------------+
+   ||                  | |
+   ||                  | |
+   ||                  | | +-----------------------+
+   +|------------------|-|>| var_ref = $ts0        |
+    |                  | | +-----------------------+
+    |                  | |   | .size               |
+    |                  | |   +---------------------+
+    |                  | |   | .offset             |
+    |                  | |   +---------------------+
+    |                  | |   | .fn()               |
+    |                  | |   +---------------------+
+    |                  | |   | .flags & FL_VAR_REF |
+    |                  | |   +---------------------+
+    |                  | +---| .var_ref_idx        |
+    |                  |   +-----------------------+
+    |                  |   | var_ref = $next_pid   |
+    |                  |   +-----------------------+
+    |                  |     | .size               |
+    |                  |     +---------------------+
+    |                  |     | .offset             |
+    |                  |     +---------------------+
+    |                  |     | .fn()               |
+    |                  |     +---------------------+
+    |                  |     | .flags & FL_VAR_REF |
+    |                  |     +---------------------+
+    |                  +-----| .var_ref_idx        |
+    |                      +-----------------------+
+    |                      | var_ref = $wakeup_lat |
+    |                      +-----------------------+
+    |                        | .size               |
+    |                        +---------------------+
+    |                        | .offset             |
+    |                        +---------------------+
+    |                        | .fn()               |
+    |                        +---------------------+
+    |                        | .flags & FL_VAR_REF |
+    |                        +---------------------+
+    +------------------------| .var_ref_idx        |
+                             +---------------------+
+
+As you can see, for a field variable, two hist_fields are created: one
+representing the variable, in this case next_pid, and one to actually
+get the value of the field from the trace stream, like a normal val
+field does.  These are created separately from normal variable
+creation and are saved in the hist_data->field_vars[] array.  See
+below for how these are used.  In addition, a reference hist_field is
+also created, which is needed to reference the field variables such as
+$next_pid variable in the trace() action.
+
+Note that $wakeup_lat is also a variable reference, referencing the
+value of the expression common_timestamp-$ts0, and so also needs to
+have a hist field entry representing that reference created.
+
+When hist_trigger_elt_update() is called to get the normal key and
+value fields, it also calls update_field_vars(), which goes through
+each field_var created for the histogram, and available from
+hist_data->field_vars and calls val->fn() to get the data from the
+current trace record, and then uses the var's var.idx to set the
+variable at the var.idx offset in the appropriate tracing_map_elt's
+variable at elt->vars[var.idx].
+
+Once all the variables have been updated, resolve_var_refs() can be
+called from event_hist_trigger(), and not only can our $ts0 and
+$next_pid references be resolved but the $wakeup_lat reference as
+well.  At this point, the trace() action can simply access the values
+assembled in the var_ref_vals[] array and generate the trace event.
+
+The same process occurs for the field variables associated with the
+save() action.
+
+Abbreviations used in the diagram::
+
+  hist_data = struct hist_trigger_data
+  hist_data.fields = struct hist_field
+  field_var = struct field_var
+  fn = hist_field_fn_t
+  FL_KEY = HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+  FL_VAR = HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+  FL_VAR_REF = HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+
+trace() action field variable test
+----------------------------------
+
+This example adds to the previous test example by finally making use
+of the wakeup_lat variable, but in addition also creates a couple of
+field variables that then are all passed to the wakeup_latency() trace
+action via the onmatch() handler.
+
+First, we create the wakeup_latency synthetic event::
+
+  # echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; char comm[16]' >> synthetic_events
+
+Next, the sched_waking trigger from previous examples::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+Finally, as in the previous test example, we calculate and assign the
+wakeup latency using the $ts0 reference from the sched_waking trigger
+to the wakeup_lat variable, and finally use it along with a couple
+sched_switch event fields, next_pid and next_comm, to generate a
+wakeup_latency trace event.  The next_pid and next_comm event fields
+are automatically converted into field variables for this purpose::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,next_comm)' >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+The sched_waking hist_debug output shows the same data as in the
+previous test example::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_waking/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=pid:vals=hitcount:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 00000000d60ff61f
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+The sched_switch hist_debug output shows the same key and value fields
+as in the previous test example - note that wakeup_lat is still in the
+val fields section, but that the new field variables are not there -
+although the field variables are variables, they're held separately in
+the hist_data's field_vars[] array.  Although the field variables and
+the normal variables are located in separate places, you can see that
+the actual variable locations for those variables in the
+tracing_map_elt.vars[] do have increasing indices as expected:
+wakeup_lat takes the var.idx = 0 slot, while the field variables for
+next_pid and next_comm have values var.idx = 1, and var.idx = 2.  Note
+also that those are the same values displayed for the variable
+references corresponding to those variables in the variable reference
+fields section.  Since there are two triggers and thus two hist_data
+addresses, those addresses also need to be accounted for when doing
+the matching - you can see that the first variable refers to the 0
+var.idx on the previous hist trigger (see the hist_data address
+associated with that trigger), while the second variable refers to the
+0 var.idx on the sched_switch hist trigger, as do all the remaining
+variable references.
+
+Finally, the action tracking variables section just shows the system
+and event name for the onmatch() handler::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_switch/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=next_pid:vals=hitcount:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,next_comm) [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 0000000008f551b7
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  variable reference fields:
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[0]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 00000000d60ff61f
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 0000000008f551b7
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: next_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+      var.hist_data: 0000000008f551b7
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 2
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[3]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: next_comm
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 2
+      var.hist_data: 0000000008f551b7
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 3
+      type: char[16]
+      size: 256
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  field variables:
+
+    hist_data->field_vars[0]:
+
+      field_vars[0].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: next_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+
+      field_vars[0].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->field_vars[1]:
+
+      field_vars[1].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: next_comm
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 2
+
+      field_vars[1].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_comm
+      type: char[16]
+      size: 256
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  action tracking variables (for onmax()/onchange()/onmatch()):
+
+    hist_data->actions[0].match_data.event_system: sched
+    hist_data->actions[0].match_data.event: sched_waking
+
+The commands below can be used to clean things up for the next test::
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,next_comm)' >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+  # echo '!wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; char comm[16]' >> synthetic_events
+
+action_data and the trace() action
+----------------------------------
+
+As mentioned above, when the trace() action generates a synthetic
+event, all the parameters to the synthetic event either already are
+variables or are converted into variables (via field variables), and
+finally all those variable values are collected via references to them
+into a var_ref_vals[] array.
+
+The values in the var_ref_vals[] array, however, don't necessarily
+follow the same ordering as the synthetic event params.  To address
+that, struct action_data contains another array, var_ref_idx[] that
+maps the trace action params to the var_ref_vals[] values.  Below is a
+diagram illustrating that for the wakeup_latency() synthetic event::
+
+  +------------------+     wakeup_latency()
+  | action_data      |       event params               var_ref_vals[]
+  +------------------+    +-----------------+        +-----------------+
+    | .var_ref_idx[] |--->| $wakeup_lat idx |---+    |                 |
+    +----------------+    +-----------------+   |    +-----------------+
+    | .synth_event   |    | $next_pid idx   |---|-+  | $wakeup_lat val |
+    +----------------+    +-----------------+   | |  +-----------------+
+                                   .            | +->| $next_pid val   |
+                                   .            |    +-----------------+
+                                   .            |           .
+                          +-----------------+   |           .
+			  |                 |   |           .
+			  +-----------------+   |    +-----------------+
+                                                +--->| $wakeup_lat val |
+                                                     +-----------------+
+
+Basically, how this ends up getting used in the synthetic event probe
+function, trace_event_raw_event_synth(), is as follows::
+
+  for each field i in .synth_event
+    val_idx = .var_ref_idx[i]
+    val = var_ref_vals[val_idx]
+
+action_data and the onXXX() handlers
+------------------------------------
+
+The hist trigger onXXX() actions other than onmatch(), such as onmax()
+and onchange(), also make use of and internally create hidden
+variables.  This information is contained in the
+action_data.track_data struct, and is also visible in the hist_debug
+output as will be described in the example below.
+
+Typically, the onmax() or onchange() handlers are used in conjunction
+with the save() and snapshot() actions.  For example::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0: \
+          onmax($wakeup_lat).save(next_comm,prev_pid,prev_prio,prev_comm)' >>
+          /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+or::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0: \
+          onmax($wakeup_lat).snapshot()' >>
+          /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+save() action field variable test
+---------------------------------
+
+For this example, instead of generating a synthetic event, the save()
+action is used to save field values whenever an onmax() handler
+detects that a new max latency has been hit.  As in the previous
+example, the values being saved are also field values, but in this
+case, are kept in a separate hist_data array named save_vars[].
+
+As in previous test examples, we set up the sched_waking trigger::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+In this case, however, we set up the sched_switch trigger to save some
+sched_switch field values whenever we hit a new maximum latency.  For
+both the onmax() handler and save() action, variables will be created,
+which we can use the hist_debug files to examine::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmax($wakeup_lat).save(next_comm,prev_pid,prev_prio,prev_comm)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+The sched_waking hist_debug output shows the same data as in the
+previous test examples::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_waking/hist_debug
+
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=pid:vals=hitcount:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 00000000e6290f48
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+The output of the sched_switch trigger shows the same val and key
+values as before, but also shows a couple new sections.
+
+First, the action tracking variables section now shows the
+actions[].track_data information describing the special tracking
+variables and references used to track, in this case, the running
+maximum value.  The actions[].track_data.var_ref member contains the
+reference to the variable being tracked, in this case the $wakeup_lat
+variable.  In order to perform the onmax() handler function, there
+also needs to be a variable that tracks the current maximum by getting
+updated whenever a new maximum is hit.  In this case, we can see that
+an autogenerated veriable named ' __max' has been created and is
+visible in the actions[].track_data.track_var variable.
+
+Finally, in the new 'save action variables' section, we can see that
+the 4 params to the save() function have resulted in 4 field variables
+being created for the purposes of saving the values of the named
+fields when the max is hit.  These variables are kept in a separate
+save_vars[] array off of hist_data, so are displayed in a separate
+section::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_switch/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=next_pid:vals=hitcount:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global:onmax($wakeup_lat).save(next_comm,prev_pid,prev_prio,prev_comm) [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 0000000057bcd28d
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  variable reference fields:
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[0]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 00000000e6290f48
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 0000000057bcd28d
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  action tracking variables (for onmax()/onchange()/onmatch()):
+
+    hist_data->actions[0].track_data.var_ref:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 0000000057bcd28d
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->actions[0].track_data.track_var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: __max
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  save action variables (save() params):
+
+    hist_data->save_vars[0]:
+
+      save_vars[0].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: next_comm
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 2
+
+      save_vars[0].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_comm
+      type: char[16]
+      size: 256
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->save_vars[1]:
+
+      save_vars[1].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: prev_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 3
+
+      save_vars[1].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: prev_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->save_vars[2]:
+
+      save_vars[2].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: prev_prio
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 4
+
+      save_vars[2].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: prev_prio
+      type: int
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->save_vars[3]:
+
+      save_vars[3].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: prev_comm
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 5
+
+      save_vars[3].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: prev_comm
+      type: char[16]
+      size: 256
+      is_signed: 0
+
+The commands below can be used to clean things up for the next test::
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmax($wakeup_lat).save(next_comm,prev_pid,prev_prio,prev_comm)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+A couple special cases
+======================
+
+While the above covers the basics of the histogram internals, there
+are a couple of special cases that should be discussed, since they
+tend to creae even more confusion.  Those are field variables on other
+histograms, and aliases, both described below through example tests
+using the hist_debug files.
+
+Test of field variables on other histograms
+-------------------------------------------
+
+This example is similar to the previous examples, but in this case,
+the sched_switch trigger references a hist trigger field on another
+event, namely the sched_waking event.  In order to accomplish this, a
+field variable is created for the other event, but since an existing
+histogram can't be used, as existing histograms are immutable, a new
+histogram with a matching variable is created and used, and we'll see
+that reflected in the hist_debug output shown below.
+
+First, we create the wakeup_latency synthetic event.  Note the
+addition of the prio field::
+
+  # echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; int prio' >> synthetic_events
+
+As in previous test examples, we set up the sched_waking trigger::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+Here we set up a hist trigger on sched_switch to send a wakeup_latency
+event using an onmatch handler naming the sched_waking event.  Note
+that the third param being passed to the wakeup_latency() is prio,
+which is a field name that needs to have a field variable created for
+it.  There isn't however any prio field on the sched_switch event so
+it would seem that it wouldn't be possible to create a field variable
+for it.  The matching sched_waking event does have a prio field, so it
+should be possible to make use of it for this purpose.  The problem
+with that is that it's not currently possible to define a new variable
+on an existing histogram, so it's not possible to add a new prio field
+variable to the existing sched_waking histogram.  It is however
+possible to create an additional new 'matching' sched_waking histogram
+for the same event, meaning that it uses the same key and filters, and
+define the new prio field variable on that.
+
+Here's the sched_switch trigger::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,prio)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+And here's the output of the hist_debug information for the
+sched_waking hist trigger.  Note that there are two histograms
+displayed in the output: the first is the normal sched_waking
+histogram we've seen in the previous examples, and the second is the
+special histogram we created to provide the prio field variable.
+
+Looking at the second histogram below, we see a variable with the name
+synthetic_prio.  This is the field variable created for the prio field
+on that sched_waking histogram::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_waking/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=pid:vals=hitcount:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 00000000349570e4
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=pid:vals=hitcount:synthetic_prio=prio:sort=hitcount:size=2048 [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 000000006920cf38
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      ftrace_event_field name: prio
+      var.name: synthetic_prio
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: int
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+Looking at the sched_switch histogram below, we can see a reference to
+the synthetic_prio variable on sched_waking, and looking at the
+associated hist_data address we see that it is indeed associated with
+the new histogram.  Note also that the other references are to a
+normal variable, wakeup_lat, and to a normal field variable, next_pid,
+the details of which are in the field variables section::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_switch/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=next_pid:vals=hitcount:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,prio) [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 00000000a73b67df
+
+  n_vals: 2
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 3
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  variable reference fields:
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[0]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 00000000349570e4
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 0
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 00000000a73b67df
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: next_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+      var.hist_data: 00000000a73b67df
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 2
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[3]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: synthetic_prio
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 000000006920cf38
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 3
+      type: int
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  field variables:
+
+    hist_data->field_vars[0]:
+
+      field_vars[0].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: next_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+
+      field_vars[0].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  action tracking variables (for onmax()/onchange()/onmatch()):
+
+    hist_data->actions[0].match_data.event_system: sched
+    hist_data->actions[0].match_data.event: sched_waking
+
+The commands below can be used to clean things up for the next test::
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,prio)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+  # echo '!wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; int prio' >> synthetic_events
+
+Alias test
+----------
+
+This example is very similar to previous examples, but demonstrates
+the alias flag.
+
+First, we create the wakeup_latency synthetic event::
+
+  # echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; char comm[16]' >> synthetic_events
+
+Next, we create a sched_waking trigger similar to previous examples,
+but in this case we save the pid in the waking_pid variable::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=pid:waking_pid=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+For the sched_switch trigger, instead of using $waking_pid directly in
+the wakeup_latency synthetic event invocation, we create an alias of
+$waking_pid named $woken_pid, and use that in the synthetic event
+invocation instead::
+
+  # echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:woken_pid=$waking_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,$woken_pid,next_comm)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+Looking at the sched_waking hist_debug output, in addition to the
+normal fields, we can see the waking_pid variable::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_waking/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=pid:vals=hitcount:waking_pid=pid,ts0=common_timestamp.usecs:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 00000000a250528c
+
+  n_vals: 3
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 4
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      ftrace_event_field name: pid
+      var.name: waking_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[3]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+The sched_switch hist_debug output shows that a variable named
+woken_pid has been created but that it also has the
+HIST_FIELD_FL_ALIAS flag set.  It also has the HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR flag
+set, which is why it appears in the val field section.
+
+Despite that implementation detail, an alias variable is actually more
+like a variable reference; in fact it can be thought of as a reference
+to a reference.  The implementation copies the var_ref->fn() from the
+variable reference being referenced, in this case, the waking_pid
+fn(), which is hist_field_var_ref() and makes that the fn() of the
+alias.  The hist_field_var_ref() fn() requires the var_ref_idx of the
+variable reference it's using, so waking_pid's var_ref_idx is also
+copied to the alias.  The end result is that when the value of alias
+is retrieved, in the end it just does the same thing the original
+reference would have done and retrieves the same value from the
+var_ref_vals[] array.  You can verify this in the output by noting
+that the var_ref_idx of the alias, in this case woken_pid, is the same
+as the var_ref_idx of the reference, waking_pid, in the variable
+reference fields section.
+
+Additionally, once it gets that value, since it is also a variable, it
+then saves that value into its var.idx.  So the var.idx of the
+woken_pid alias is 0, which it fills with the value from var_ref_idx 0
+when its fn() is called to update itself.  You'll also notice that
+there's a woken_pid var_ref in the variable refs section.  That is the
+reference to the woken_pid alias variable, and you can see that it
+retrieves the value from the same var.idx as the woken_pid alias, 0,
+and then in turn saves that value in its own var_ref_idx slot, 3, and
+the value at this position is finally what gets assigned to the
+$woken_pid slot in the trace event invocation::
+
+  # cat events/sched/sched_switch/hist_debug
+
+  # event histogram
+  #
+  # trigger info: hist:keys=next_pid:vals=hitcount:woken_pid=$waking_pid,wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,$woken_pid,next_comm) [active]
+  #
+
+  hist_data: 0000000055d65ed0
+
+  n_vals: 3
+  n_keys: 1
+  n_fields: 4
+
+  val fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[0]:
+      flags:
+        VAL: HIST_FIELD_FL_HITCOUNT
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->fields[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_ALIAS
+      var.name: woken_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 0
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->fields[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  key fields:
+
+    hist_data->fields[3]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_KEY
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_pid
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 1
+
+  variable reference fields:
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[0]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: waking_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 00000000a250528c
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 0
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[1]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: ts0
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+      var.hist_data: 00000000a250528c
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 1
+      type: u64
+      size: 8
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[2]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: wakeup_lat
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 1
+      var.hist_data: 0000000055d65ed0
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 2
+      type: u64
+      size: 0
+      is_signed: 0
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[3]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: woken_pid
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 0
+      var.hist_data: 0000000055d65ed0
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 3
+      type: pid_t
+      size: 4
+      is_signed: 1
+
+    hist_data->var_refs[4]:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF
+      name: next_comm
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 2
+      var.hist_data: 0000000055d65ed0
+      var_ref_idx (into hist_data->var_refs[]): 4
+      type: char[16]
+      size: 256
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  field variables:
+
+    hist_data->field_vars[0]:
+
+      field_vars[0].var:
+      flags:
+        HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR
+      var.name: next_comm
+      var.idx (into tracing_map_elt.vars[]): 2
+
+      field_vars[0].val:
+      ftrace_event_field name: next_comm
+      type: char[16]
+      size: 256
+      is_signed: 0
+
+  action tracking variables (for onmax()/onchange()/onmatch()):
+
+    hist_data->actions[0].match_data.event_system: sched
+    hist_data->actions[0].match_data.event: sched_waking
+
+The commands below can be used to clean things up for the next test::
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=next_pid:woken_pid=$waking_pid:wakeup_lat=common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,$woken_pid,next_comm)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
+
+  # echo '!hist:keys=pid:ts0=common_timestamp.usecs' >> events/sched/sched_waking/trigger
+
+  # echo '!wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; char comm[16]' >> synthetic_events
-- 
2.17.1

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